Leave it to the French, the only filmmakers more twisted than the Japanese, to make a movie that starts off as a blistering social commentary, takes a swing into dark horror and ends up in Texas Chainsaw Massacre country, only with the rednecks replaced by Neo-Nazi cannibals. Making his feature debut, Xavier Gens (Hitman) takes no prisoners and delivers one of the best meat movies never to feature Leatherface. Better structured than Hostel and more palatable than Martyrs, Frontiers is one of the few torture porn movies to really stand out. There are all the usual decapitations and characters who are eaten alive, but how many films have as their villain a Nazi war criminal who kidnaps women with the intent of breeding a new master race (and abandons them in a mine when they disappoint him)? Its this kind of blackly comic material that makes you wonder if Gens is wasting his time in Hollywood.
Ian Watson is the author of 'Midnight Movie Madness', a 600+ page guide to "bad" movies from 'Reefer Madness' to 'Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.'
